Stealaway - Log Day 2

Andrew and John are still fine and are celebrating the end of the rain. Weather has been wet and misty, but has now begun to clear. We put the first 100 miles behind us at 07:00 UTC this morning; only another 430 to go! We have passed outside the Ushant traffic separation zone 40 miles to the west of the island and 50 miles offshore.At noon UTC we are 48' 35.8"N 06' 10.7WKind regardsAndrew and John. read more...

Stealaway - Log Day 1

Andrew and John are both well and are getting Stealaway settled downWind is light and boat is heavy = progress is modest.More to followRegards Andrew and John. read more...

Stealaway - Log Day 3 Dolphins Sighted !!

Well we have had some major achievements. We have covered more than 240 miles of the 530 miles and have passed the half way mark in distance from Plymouth to the traffic separation lanes off Cap Finisterre.We are at last sailing and have the boat steering a course to the wind using the Hydrovane self steering gear. It took a little experimentation! The wind is still a gentle 10 knots from the west. The forecast is for the wind to go to the northwest and the north.  That wind direction would be excellent.At 10:30 this morning the Oriana passenger liner passed in the opposite direction some 8 miles away. We did not see her as visibility is only some 2 miles! There are lots of ships going between Ushant and Finistere. At times we have 16 ships within a 15 mile radius.We saw dolphins. read more...

Stealaway - Log Day 4

We finally got the forecasted wind shift to the NE just after midnight and got some free sailing. Very busy with shipping in the early hours with 5 vessels at one time to both port and starboard in close proximity, i.e. less than 0.5 miles. The night was cloudy but not foggy.We currently have F5 or in excess of 20 knots of wind. Boat is romping along at in excess of 7 knots.The sun is out although it is still cloudy. The sea state is picking up. We about 100 miles north of Finisterre having covered some 350 miles with 175 miles to finish.We are managing to get weather information and forecasts.The dolphins just came just came back to play.John and Andrew are well if unshaven!Kind Regards From Andrew and John aboard Stealaway. read more...

Stealaway - Log Day 5

Hi all from Andrew and Richard on board StealawayBoat is steady at the moment so you may get extra wordsWe have had an eventful 24 hours.  But first I forgot to mention in the last log that we did get the cruising chute out and sailed for 5 hours with it.With the NE wind yesterday we started to get some sailing in. The wind was forecast force 4 to 5 occassional 6.In the afternoon we had the force 5 and by evening force 6. The boat was doing in excess of 8 knots. For the night watch we put the first reef in the mainsail. When the wind speed went over 30 knots and the log recorded a boat speed of 10.8 knots we started to roll in the genoa. The wind then dropped to virtually nothing.The dolphins were around the boat several times yesterday. I could not get a photo but did get a short. read more...